i get that for most people this is weird, but i was thrilled to find myself holed up on saturday afternoon and evening in my new sewing loft, jumping from project to project with “harpers island” as my video track and a sleeping cat for company. with several breaks throughout the day to continue my feud with the invasive multiflora rose that is growing EXACTLY where i want to put my raspberry canes, which arrive next week, i caught up on my pantone challenge AND started my pink challenge for the sew weekly, even though that is still 3 weeks off. i also started working on a renfrew top, which i am very excited about. after reading tanit-isis’s post on her renfrew, i was worried that perhaps the top would not be fitted and contoured enough for my platonic ideal of a knit T. i traced off my favorite T, an old “project RED” T from gap, and was thrilled to compare the two and find almost no difference on those all-important side seams.

i spent much of saturday working on the top for simplicity 2723, a very cute deco-style number in which the blouse is pieced together in three panels for the front, and one very fitted panel in the back. i actually had a muslin for this one, which i worked on with my mom about a year ago, and was able to go straight for a gorgeous cotton-silk blend i had been saving for this very purpose. since i didn’t want to re-draw the pattern, but i now know i need a little help to keep fabric from pooling in the back, i adjusted the pattern according to a diagram kenneth king sketched for me last summer, in which i lowered the shoulder seam and tapered it and did a few other things that i am not entirely sure i understood, but which seemed to work. basically a built-in swayback adjustment without a CB seam. i’d post the diagram, but it’s not my intellectual property, and that is how kenneth makes a living. just trust me: it works.

well, not really, but i have to admit i was touched to be included on both of their lists for a sunshine award. i’m not really sure what it means, and, having met meg, i can say unequivocally that she is funnier, friendlier, sunnier and more vivacious than i can ever hope to be. as for cindy, it was love at first sheet dress–even before i had to bow down before the awesomeness that is walnut. if i had had a chemistry teacher like cindy i may not have failed the course. at a certain point, i feel like we’ve all shared one of these awards with each other, so i am not sure to whom i should pass mine. i love everybody! can i hold it in reserve?

favorite color: yellow. it is cheerful and happy.

favorite animal: cats. or rubber duckies. long story.

favorite number: since cindy already took 42, i’ll have to go for an even more obscure reference and go with 47. it’s a prime number.

facebook or Twitter: um…neither? i facebook, but only because how else could i see my friend’s kids’ baby pictures?

my passion: what day of the week is it? i could be cooking, sewing, fighting with a multiflora rose, canning, knitting or making photographs. so i’d have to say photography, because it has been there for me the longest. specifically, i specialize in alternative and historic non-silver processes: cyanotyping, van dykes, platinum/palladium, gum bichomrate and temperaprint.

getting or giving presents: i can go either way depending on who it’s for, or who it’s from.

favorite day of the week: friday night, because there is nothing but potential in front of me.

favorite flower: daffodils and tulips. they say spring like nothing else. also, they are some of the few flowers i am not allergic to.

favorite celebrity role model: i have lately developed a fondness for martha plimpton, because i loved her on the good wife, recently realized she was in one of my most favorite episodes of fringe, and because she is a passionate and talented woman, no matter what the role, who is not afraid to speak about issues that concern her, even–or maybe especially–when they are political.

When did you acquire your helpful feline assistant? Was he/she immediately helpful, or did it take awhile? What is the average amount of time elapsed between when you start a project and when something gets helped with? indy is 11 years old, and it took him a while to learn to help with sewing. now, however, he is a pro: it usually takes only the nanosecond between me deciding to put down a piece of fabric and it actually kissing the floor before he is already on top of it.

What is your helpful feline assistant’s favorite/weirdest thing to assist with? picking out my outfits. no matter how many i put on the bed in the morning, he always sits on the article of clothing i intend to wear. never last night’s PJs or that morning’s towel. always the clothes for the workday. he also likes to help me sit on the couch and eat dinner by planting himself exactly on top of my arm that is holding the fork or spoon.

How do you decline said assistance without losing your arm? by tugging the desired item of clothing out from under him, in the morning. by literally holding him at arm’s length in the evening.

What’s the worst thing your helpful feline assistant has managed to botch up? i have a hole right at my navel in every t-shirt or knit camisole i own, from him digging a claw in there as he settles on my stomach.

Are you ever afraid to post too many pictures of your helpful feline assistant on your blog, for fear of being labeled a crazy cat lady? i’m pretty sure there is no hope left for me.